Surveys are possibly the most valuable data-gathering tools available to wildlife policy-makers. Licenses sales don’t tell the whole story. Anecdotes from hunters definitely don’t share the whole story. They’re important to make sure our voices are heard. We complained for years that seasons and bag limits and rules and regs were thoughtlessly dictated to us by incompetent bureaucrats, lobbyists and politicians. Over the last ten years, those very people have adopted a more stakeholder-friendly manner of shaping policy.

One can easily look to Florida recently to witness how hunter input has carved different zones created to get hunters in the woods during prime times; started a guest-hunter program that continues to morph in an effort to get more people hunting; and opened thousands of acres for public hunting. In addition, there are proposals out there to give private land owners more control on balancing their deer herds.

Outdoor Life has created a survey tool to gather data regarding our nation’s obsession with the whitetail deer and how, when, where, and why we spend our time and resources. The results of the survey will be presented to the Quality Deer Management Association’s first-ever Whitetail Summit next month.

Here’s more from OL:

“Even while America’s whitetail population is at its highest, there are critical issues facing the country’s deer and deer hunters. Disease, winter kill, predation, and poor land management all have the potential to flip your next deer season on its head. But before we can tackle the problems at hand, we need to figure out which issues are most important to us, America’s deer hunters. That’s why we’ve put together our first national deer survey.

But this form isn’t just a way to gauge deer hunter opinion. Our Editor Andrew McKean will take the results to the Quality Deer Management Associations first-ever Whitetail Summit next month and share the data with the world’s foremost deer experts. Those experts will take the information back to their home states and use it to inform whitetail management decisions. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the survey results and news from the QDMA summit.

Most importantly, take our survey and share it with your buddies. It’s time for the voice of America’s deer hunters to be heard.”

So, if you’d like to participate, and I believe you should, please click here. Thank you.

About This Blog

Ian Nance is a lifelong resident of Central Florida with a passion for hunting and just about anything related. Associate Member of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association. Check back weekly for hunting stories, news, tips, and wild game recipes. Feel free to leave comments or e-mail topics you would like to see addressed here. Contact at inance880@aol.com or follow on Twitter @good_hunt